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"God, it seems like eveninto the natatoriuht: the stands see the first half The band, set up near the diving well, was playing a fight song, and the foaray Hammerhead mascot had joined the cheerleaders in front of the stands Everyone was in the stands--the popular kids, the soccer boys, the dras sat next to Kirsten Cullen Maya was up there, typing furiously into her cell phone, and Hanna Marin sat near her, all alone and gazing out into the crowd And there were Emily’s parents, dressed up in their blue-and-white Rosewood Swi sweatshirts decorated with GO EMILY and GO CAROLYN buttons E a piece of paper, probably the heat sheet Actually, a lot of people were looking at the heat sheet Mr Shay, the geezerish biology teacher who alatched practice because he’d been a swio, held a copy about three inches fro--it just listed the order of events

James Freed stepped in Erin "Hey, Ely "I had no idea"

Emily frowned "No idea…what?"

Aria’s brother, Mike, sauntered up next to James "Hi, Emily"

Mona Vanderwaal ca her, you two" She turned to E" She dug through her giant butterscotch suede satchel and handed Emily a white envelope Emily turned it over in her hands Whatever this was, Mona had scented it with solanced up, confused

"I’ a birthday party on Saturday," Mona explained, twisting a long piece of white-blond hair around her fingers "Maybe I’ll see you?"

"You should totally co his eyes

"I…" Eand Mona skipped away

Eain What on earth was that all about? She wasn’t the type of girl who got hand-delivered invitations froot salacious looks froht her eye It was a piece of paper taped to the wall It hadn’t been there before halftime And it looked familiar Like a photo

She squinted Her heart dropped to her knees It was a photo…of two people kissing in a photo booth In Noel Kahn’s photo booth

"Ohtwice on the wet pool deck

"Emily!" Aria ran toward her froainst the tile and her blue-black hair flapping wildly all over her face "I’m sorry I’m late, but can we talk?"

Emily didn’t answer Aria Soin what race Her whole team would see it But would they knoas her?

She tore the Xerox off the wall On the botto black letters, it said, LOOK WHAT EMILY FIELDS HAS BEEN PRACTICING WHEN SHE’S NOT IN THE POOL!

Well, that cleared that up

Aria leaned over and examined the photo "Is that…you?"

Emily’s chin trembled She crumpled up the paper in her hands, but when she looked around, she saw another copy sitting on top of sorabbed it and cru on the ground near the tub of kickboards And another one…in Coach Lauren’s hands Lauren looked from the picture to Emily, from Emily to the picture "E," Elanced over at the wire-mesh wastebasket near Lauren’s office There were at least ten discarded pictures of her kissing Maya at the bottom Someone had thrown a half-drunk can of Sunkist on top The liquid had oozed out, coloring their faces orange There werelane storage wheel Her teaave her uneasy looks Her ex-boyfriend, Ben, smirked at her, as if to say, Your little lesbo experiment isn’t so fun now, huh?

Aria picked up a copy that had see She squinted and pursed her shiny, strawberry-red lips together "So what? You’re kissing someone" Her eyes widened "Oh"

Emily let out a helpless eep

"Did A do this?" Aria whispered

E these out?" But Aria shook her head E and found her cell phone There was a text Of course there was a text

Emily, sweetie, I know you’re all about tit for tat, so when you made plans to out me, I decided to out you too Kisses!

--A

"Da the text over Eht suddenly hit E at--it wasn’t the heat sheet It was the photo She glanced over at the stands Sure enough, her parents were staring at her They looked like they were about to cry, their faces red and nostrils flared

"I have to get out of here" Emily searched for the nearest exit

"No way" Aria grabbed E to be asha, screw ’eht call Aria weird, but she was normal She had a boyfriend She would never knohat this felt like

"Emily, this is our opportunity!" Aria protested "A is probably here" She looked ly into the bleachers

Eain Her parents still wore the sary and hurt expressions Maya’s spot was now eth of the stands for her, but Maya was gone

A was probably up there And Eh to climb up into the bleachers and shake everyone until someone confessed But she couldn’t

"I…I’m sorry," Emily said abruptly, and ran for the locker room She passed the hundred or so people who nohat she was really like, tra over copies of her and Maya on the way